In a town like Alice, grog too often proves deadly

The NT Government still allows three pubs to open bars at 10:00am, selling alcohol on-site to an entirely Indigenous clientele.

ABC TV

In Alice Springs, everyone has a way of describing the grog problem.

Doctors speak of the frequent flyer drunks attending hospital.

Lawyers dealing with horrific assaults talk of clients who measure drinks in cartons, not cans, and describe time in relation to whether the bottle shop is open or closed.

Lutheran Pastor Basil Schild measures it by the people he buries.

There were three women in his congregation murdered in a year. Another woman who couldn't drive tried to take her drunk husband's car away but died after crashing into a tree.

There are also the stillborn babies, the domestic violence victim who killed herself and the mother who buried her fifth and final son - all of them dead due to grog.

No-one disputes that takeaway alcohol sales lead to most of the troubles in the Central Australian town.

To combat this, the Territory Government introduced restrictions on cask wine and stopped takeaway alcohol sales before 2pm.

The moves have significantly reduced the amount of alcohol being consumed, but the Government still allows three pubs to open bars at 10 in the morning, selling alcohol on-site to an entirely Indigenous clientele.

Together, the three bars - the Todd Tavern, the Gap View Hotel and the Heavitree Gap - are licensed to serve more than 400 people before lunch.

The pre-lunch drinking is largely hidden behind the venues' heavily-tinted windows and high walls.

Pastor Basil Schild and I went to these pubs, which the bouncers at the door made clear are places that non-Indigenous people do not go.

"You'll be wanting the [other] bar," we were told.

Another bouncer stated we must be from licensing. At the third place, a man who didn't identify himself demanded to know why we were there.

Inside the bars, no-one was eating, even though it was lunchtime.

At the Todd Tavern, the bar is officially called the Riverside Bar, although locals call it the Animal Bar.

Inside there was no carpet and almost no furniture - only a handful of plastic chairs. There seemed to be no air flow. It was cold, muggy and it stank. The man behind the bar watched us for a long time.

But when we headed into the Todd Tavern's other bar just metres away - the bar where both indigenous and non-Indigenous people drink - it was warm, carpeted and well-ventilated. There were bar tables to sit at and comfortable chairs.

The bar staff were distinctly friendlier and the beer was cheaper too.

All three of the bars with the Aboriginal clientele are allowed to stay open, but they close their doors at 2pm, right when their takeaway alcohol outlets open.

It's this takeaway alcohol that gets blamed for most of the violence in Alice Springs.

The amount of alcohol the venues sell is a commercial secret. The Licensing Commission has the figures but doesn't disclose them.

A former industry insider told the ABC the volumes of takeaway beer are staggering.

Fosters confirmed the Todd Tavern and the Gap View Hotel are among their largest individual beer customers in the country.

Defence lawyer Russell Goldflam says the ironic thing about all the takeaway alcohol is that because the dry town and intervention laws ban drinking in public places and town camps, most of the Indigenous people buying the grog have nowhere legal to drink it.

The pubs all declined to speak for this story.

But while they make profits at the point of sale, the companies that make the beer take an even larger cut. The Government gets the rest in excise and taxes.

The largest liquor suppliers in Territory are Fosters, which produces Victoria Bitter, and Lion Nathan, which makes XXXX Gold.

Both companies sent statements saying they are committed to responsible consumption.

In its statement, Lion Nathan said that no responsible company wants to make a dollar from people with alcohol dependency.

It's difficult to reconcile that with the crowds of drinkers piling into Alice Springs' pubs at 10 in the morning, or with figures showing Indigenous death rates from alcohol in Central Australia are substantially higher than the national average.

It's even more difficult to reconcile when a woman with a battered face clutching a green can cheerfully tells you she drinks every day - in a pub which doesn't even serve lunch.